Modern motor vehicles increasingly have motorized closure element arrangements having at least one closure element. Said closure elements may be, for example, doors, in particular sliding doors, hatches, in particular tailgates, boot lids, engine hoods, cargo space floors or the like, of a motor vehicle. In this respect, the term “closure element” has a broad meaning in the present case. The closure element generally has an associated drive arrangement which can serve for the motorized adjustment of the closure element, the motorized opening of a motor vehicle lock of the closure element, or the like.
One convenience function which is becoming increasingly important today is the automatic operation of the motorized tailgate of a motor vehicle. The known control system (DE 10 2011 112 274 A1) on which the invention is based performs this convenience function and is equipped with a linear capacitive distance sensor which measures distances transverse to its local extent. The distance sensor passes over an elongate sensor region in a longitudinal direction and is accommodated in a rear skirt of the motor vehicle.
The known control system is further equipped with a control arrangement which, as part of an operator control event monitoring process, monitors the distance sensor in order to check whether a predetermined operator control event in the form of an operator control movement cycle is present. In one variant, the operator control movement cycle is a transverse movement cycle in the form of a foot movement in a transverse direction. In response to this operator control event being detected, the closure element arrangement is driven by means of the control arrangement if a longitudinal movement of the operator in the longitudinal direction has additionally been detected. In this way, it is possible to ensure that the operator has already moved out of the region in which there is a risk of collision. The longitudinal movement of the operator is likewise detected by means of the distance sensor. To this end, the distance sensor has a changing sensitivity along a sensor extent.
Although DE 10 2011 112 274 A1 discloses that a longitudinal movement can be detected as an operator control event in principle, this detection serves only to make the motorized operation of the tailgate in response to the detection of the abovementioned transverse movement cycle more reliable.
A similar disclosure is provided by DE 10 2010 002 559 A1 which discloses a distance sensor which is segmented along a sensor extent. As a result of the segmentation, a longitudinal movement of the operator in the longitudinal direction can be detected, and therefore incorrect recordings which are based on such a longitudinal movement can be precluded.
One disadvantage with the known control systems is the fact that the operator has to comply with a relatively strict prespecified operator control movement cycle in order to trigger the desired driving of the respective closure element. This is understood to be a restriction to operator control convenience.
Embodiments of the invention address the problem of designing and developing the known control system in such a way that the operator control convenience can be increased using simple means.